The filmmakers selected Will Patton portray Bill Yoast. "When you meet the real man, you see their similarities," says Bruckheimer of the actor and his subject.
"There's a quiet strength that both of them have. And there's something about Will, which allows him to transcend an audience's expectations; he has the ability to become anybody, to take on a vastly different persona for any given role. He's like a chameleon. In this piece he's playing someone with a great deal of conviction, but someone who has been passed over for a post he's wanted all his life."
"Yoast considers coaching the best job in the world," says Patton. "And right when he's about to get an even better job, it suddenly all falls apart. In the script, Yoast keeps silent but by being present amid just going along, he's part of the prejudice. Something needs to happen in this town and oddly enough, football becomes a metaphor for what's happening within society.
"It happened everywhere," the actor says. "Not just in the south. Amid when integration came, yon had people from both sides saying 'This is not natural. We want to stay here, you want to stay there.' But it had to happen or we wouldn't have gotten anywhere. That's what interested me about this story."
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